Today's meeting of the Federal Reserve and their announcement regarding interest rates was, by far, the most anticipated financial announcement so far in 2023.
Since the start of the banking collapse of the past couple of weeks, there has been widespread speculation about what the Fed was going to do today.
Would they announce rate cuts and the return of easy money, which would throw a life preserver out to America's smaller banks, or would they continue with rate hikes in an attempt to lower inflation, but potentially doom hundreds of America's smaller and mid-sized banks to collapse?
It was a no-win situation for the Fed, and most were anticipating at least a halt in rising interest rates, if not the announcement of rate cuts.
In the end, the Fed announced another rate increase, stating that rate cuts were not on the table for the rest of 2023.
Trying to calm the nerves of investors on Wall Street, Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell announced that "all depositor savings" were "safe," and that they were prepared to "use all tools" to keep the U.S. banking system "safe and sound."
However, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, who was testifying before a Senate Appropriations subcommittee at the same time Powell was making his remarks, was asked if the FDIC was going to raise the limit on bank deposits that are insured above the current $250,000 limit, and she replied:
“This is not something we have looked at, it’s not something that we’re considering.”
Whoops! The stock markets then began a steep decline in the final hour of trading, as soon as she said that.
Bank stocks tumbled once again, but they are not the only ones looking at disaster. The automobile industry and the housing market is also in big trouble now, as U.S. consumers' ability to borrow money and make major purchases will now get even worse.
And just as a reminder, this current crisis of liquidity and downward spiral all began last year when FTX blew up, and the Big Tech sector began massive layoffs.
Big Tech's main bank, Silicon Valley Bank, the 15th largest bank in the U.S., was the first to crash.
And now, America's reliance on technology is crippling this nation, and it can only get worse, as all of this technology, such as AI which is eating up $billions of cash in Chat bot and other software right now, is all dependent upon hardware, and most of that is produced in China and Taiwan.
China can now easily cripple the United States and bring us to brink of collapse, without firing a single shot or launching a single missile, by simply cutting off their exports to the U.S., and blocking exports from Taiwan.
